The Book of Bobs..........

After last week’s fiasco I was looking forward to a nice quite week of fishing without any life threatening incidents. I had a couple of incidents that could have been bad but am happy to report there was no threat to life or limb in the past two weeks.

So Barb and I have a lot of “Bob’s” in our lives…. so many we have given them mini nicknames when we talk about them. This post and probably the next several will includes 3 of our Bob’s. First there is just plain Bob. He and I have been friends since high school. Although we don’t get to see each other as much as we would like our friendship continues and we are able to get out hunting and fishing several times a year. Then there is “Farmer Bob” who owns the Finken Farm in North Dakota that we visit for several weeks each fall. To make things even more confusing “Bob’s” son Chris married “Farmer Bob’s” daughter Holly who also lives on the Finken Farm. Last but certainly not least there is “Brother Bob” who is…..my brother. Got it? Okay on with the post…..

Bob came up for the week with several of his customers. He and coworker Greg have been bringing up a group of customers for the past 5 years. This year their group was from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio and had not been up here before. In fact many of them had not met until they started driving up here. Barb and I were able to get out fishing with them several times showing them some of the hotspots on a couple of the area lakes.

Getting ready for the walk into Onaman

At the launch

Fish on!

There's a happy group of fisherman!

They were mainly after large Northern Pike and Walleyes and they connected on both. Two people in their group caught 40+ inch pike and one of them caught a 30+ inch walleye.

A couple of nice pike!

30+ inch walleye

Bob with a 40+ inch Northern

One of their adventures involved going on the “Walleye Dream Trip”. This trip consists of an ~ hour drive to the boat launch and another 45 minutes by boat to the fishing location, a river dumping into Lake Nipigon. Barb and I have gone on this trip several times and can attest that it is truly a dream trip. You are catching walleyes as fast as you can get your jig in the water. The average fisherman who knows what they are doing will catch anywhere from 100 to 150 per person for the day averaging about 18-20 inches. It was on this trip the two large pike were caught as they too like to hang out in this area to snack on the walleyes.

The week went way too quick and before we knew it they were gone and a new group of fisherman had moved into their cabin. I also got out two more times with other groups, one from Michigan and one from Iceland of all places. Both were great groups and many fish we lost count of how many fish we caught. The highlight of the Michigan group was the fact that there were 4 generations of their family present and everyone made the mile + walk into Onaman, even the 95 year old. It may have taken him an hour but by God he made it both ways. I can only hope to be so lucky!

Gene reeling in a big one!

Way to go Gene!!!!

The rest of the Michigan crew.......

The Iceland group were very interesting all but one spoke English as a second language and one of them spoke 5 languages. Their group included a 6 year old little girl and I learned that whining and pouting (or booing as they called it) in Icelandic is pretty much the same in every language. She was a trooper however as she too made the walk in and out of Onaman..... 

Emmitt, little Emilya and Velda

Enrod taking a picture of Hendrick's walleye

I even managed to catch a fish or two!

With bear season less than a week away we have also been busy preparing hunting sites for several friends that are coming up. The resort has a total of 23 hunters this year so that is a lot of sites to prepare. “Farmer Bob” is coming up in less than 10 days for his first ever bear hunt and I want to make sure it is a good one, scouring the bush looking for just the right area for him to hunt to make it as successful as possible.

Nice bear track!

A couple of nice bears...(I forgot to set the time and date on the camera)

We have been traveling many of the back logging roads looking for just the right spot. Many of these roads have not been accessed in years, some are littered with fallen trees while others have waist high grass or wild flowers covering them. A chainsaw, a winch and a spare tire are a must. Over the past 10 days I have had 3 flat tires and on two occasions in the past week I got the 4 wheeler stuck having to winch it out. Once was in a big mud hole I thought I could make it through and again while trying to navigate along a washout when the edge gave way and tipped me on my side. No camera both times but I was able to take this picture of the area I got stuck the next time I went by it.

It was a little softer than I anticipated!

Tom assisting with one of the flats....

This past week I just got done scouting and was driving home when I smelled what smelled like someone smoking marijuana. I mean if I knew what that smelled like I imagined this was it……I looked around to see where it was coming from and saw a cloud of smoke behind me coming from under the jeep. This had happened to me once before and I knew exactly what it was. The weeds I had been driving through compacted between the skid plate and the muffler and were smoldering. Since I was within minutes of the resort I did not stop but continued on into the resort to the boat launch and right into the lake….problem solved! I then spent the next 30 minutes digging enough compacted grass and weeds from the undercarriage to fill a 5 gallon bucket. I now have a fire extinguisher in the jeep….

One of the many grassy roads....

Last but not least in our group of Bob’s is my brother Bob who is coming up for a few days on the 14^th with his wife Greta. We hope to get out and do some fishing, berry picking, bear retrieving and just plain exploring and hanging out.

We are continuing to work with Dakota on water training. We could not be prouder of her progress. When we first got her last fall she would run for the trailer if she was within ¼ mile of anyone shooting a gun…..I am not exaggerating, she would literally run for the trailer. I am happy to report that as of last week we are shooting over her head! Here is a very short video of our progress……

It is going to start to get really busy around here with more adventures right around the corner……